Tianjin port explosion to cost Swiss Re about $250m

This picture taken on August 20, 2015 sh...This picture taken on August 20, 2015 shows workers in decontamination suits cleaning up the site of the explosions in Tianjin. Cyanide levels more than 350 times standard limits have been detected in water close to the site of deadly explosions in the Chinese port city of Tianjin, officials said on August 20. CHINA OUT AFP PHOTOSTR/AFP/Getty Images

The explosions that ripped apart parts of the Chinese port city Tianjin in the summer are set to cost Swiss Re about $250m, the reinsurer forecast on Thursday.

David Cole, finance director, said loss adjusters were still struggling to assess the damage as Chinese officials deal with the toxic fallout, 11 weeks after the blasts.

 As a result, he added, the figure booked in Swiss Re’s third quarter financial results was only a “best estimate”.

“We still haven’t really had opportunity to get full access to the site,” he said. “Given the nature of the explosion and potential contamination, the government has been appropriately quite concerned … and restricted access.”

Swiss Re is among the first of the big reinsurers to quantify the financial hit from the calamity, which killed more than 170 people, destroyed warehouses and valuable cargo and damaged thousands of homes for miles around…Read more at FT